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Enduro It’s A Merry Go-Round Of Skills – Nye’s Blog

This year racing Enduro has been very helpful, it’s helping us improve in Road and Cross Country racing. In order to get better in Enduro racing we are active in Dual Slalom, Dirt Jumping, Riding Flow Lines, Pump Tracking and Downhill Trail Riding. It’s been fun and has shown me skills and techniques which I need to apply to Enduro and my other disciplines of racing too!

Racing Enduro is helping me with a number of things racing and also helping me with my riding techniques. In the past, as I descended I now know that I leaned way to far forward on my handlebars. I’ve learned now to center my weight over my pedals so when I hit a bump I won’t go flying over the bars. I am also learning to develop a sense of urgency when racing my Enduro courses. My Coach asked me to break the trail into several small segments so I could more easily mentally focus on sprinting and braking throughout the segment.

My coach has always taught me to manage my bike but the high speeds and difficulty of Enduro racing has shown me just how important managing my bike is, so I’m able to cross the finish line and hold on to my Series Standing position. I learned that the hard way at one of my Enduro races I didn’t pay attention to where I put my wheel through a section of rocks and I blew a tire, broke a dérailleur and snapped a few spokes. Up until this race I had finished every race I was in, but I just didn’t realize then how much more IMPORTANT managing my bike in Enduro races was! Being prepared is vital for racing Enduro, having all of your tools and spare parts with you is very important. At our last Enduro race we didn’t finish putting our spare Wheelset together. The night before the race we set up our new Full Speed Ahead SLK Wheelset with tires, but we didn’t put our rotors and cassettes on. In order to be fully prepared for our Enduro race we ended up finishing our work before our nine o’clock race start. That caused a lot of stress that morning, and I know that we didn’t perform as well because as we would have without all of that. The list of things that you need to be prepared for is endless and I know that not being prepared has detrimental effects. So remember to have all of the phases of your racing preparation covered, it’ll save you from being stressed, getting a DNF in a race, ruining your point series placing, getting injured, breaking your bike and costing you a lot of money.

Enduro has proven very helpful for my other race disciplines. Racing Enduro has helped me improve my descending when I’m racing Cross Country. I get training for Cross Country during the transfers in Enduro too. We started racing Dual Slalom just recently and Its helped me work on going my fastest down the course. Participating in Dual Slalom and doing Dirt Jumping, Pump Tacking and Downhill Trail riding is building our skills and helping us immensely in all of our other disciplines! It’s like a circle, everything helps you improve your skills and fitness in another racing discipline.

I’m learning things from racing Enduro; it helps me find flaws in my form, improves my skills, requires me to manage my bike, and teaches me to develop more urgency during races. Additionally it teaches me about managing my bike and being prepared. I want to thank my great parents and my sponsors for supporting us and making our race career possible!